Whatever the subject, on the Internet we will find information about it, we can even find information about ourselves. Everything we publish on the Internet; photos, videos, opinions, etc., and even what others publish about us, including documentation or official publications, where information about us appears, remains on the Network.
The set of all this data is what is known as identity or digital footprint and, in the same way that our reputation can be damaged, digital identity can also be affected due to the information that can be found about us on the Internet or, in the worst case, when our privacy is violated and our personal data ends up leaking.
When we click on a suspicious link and provide our username and password on a fraudulent website, we answer a form where personal data is requested or when our devices are infected by some type of virus or malware , we run the risk that our personal data end up in the wrong hands and are published, thus violating our privacy.
In order to know what information is about us on the Internet, whether it has been published by us or by third parties, legitimately or illegitimately, there is a practice known as egosurfing . It consists of using social networks and Internet search engines, such as Google, using search terms related to us, such as our name, surname, ID, etc., to locate information about us on web pages and other platforms. This is a good practice that we should all carry out periodically, to find out what is said about us, how it is said, who says it and for what purpose, and to identify possible information that should not be published and that we want to be eliminated.
How can I practice egosurfing ?
The practice of egosurfing can be done in different ways:
Google Alerts
This Google tool allows us to configure the sending of notifications to our email about any topic that interests us. To do so, we must follow the following steps:
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Access the link ‘ https://www.google.es/alerts ‘ or search for ‘Google Alerts’ directly in the search engine.
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Then, we must enter the concept or terms on which we want to establish the alert in the search bar.
Within the practice of egosurfing it is common to search for the following personal data:
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Name and surname/s: “Manuel Example” or “Manuel Example Example”.
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Surname/s followed by the name separated by a comma: “Example, Manuel” or “Example Example, Manuel”.
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Name and surname, plus the city (outside the quotation marks): “Manuel Example” Madrid.
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Address: “Calle Example, 017”.
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Postal address, plus city (outside the quotation marks): “Calle Ejemplo 017” Madrid.
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Email address: manuelexample@email.com .
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Phone number (with or without spaces and hyphens): “123456789”.
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ID: “01234567A”
It is important that when searching for this data we do so by putting it in quotes (“”). Thus, the results that we will obtain will be those web pages that contain exactly the words that we have searched for and in the same order, ignoring web pages with similar results or only part of our search.
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Finally, we can configure different options, such as when we want to receive notifications, if we want them grouped, as well as other factors such as language or geographical area.
Google search engine
One of the most common and simple practices is to search for us directly in the Google search engine by putting our name, surname or other terms such as those identified in the previous section of Google Alerts.
Google images also allows you to search for specific images , such as photos from our profiles or images shared with other people confidentially.
In addition, we can carry out searches periodically in other search engines, such as Yahoo! , Bing or Lycos and others not so well known, such as Ecosia , DuckDuckGo Yandex , Baidu , or Ask .
Searches on social networks and other platforms
Social media is the place on the Internet where we share more information about ourselves. Whether in the form of comments, statuses, photos or videos, we invest a large part of our privacy in them. However, sometimes we make the mistake of not properly configuring the privacy of our profiles, exposing all the information we share to third parties whose intentions we don’t know.
Practicing egosurfing within social networks or other platforms such as forums or contact websites can help us discover if there are fake profiles impersonating our identity , using our description, personal data or photographs.
In general, it will be enough to access the web and enter our full name, username, email or other identifying information in the platform’s search engine.
It is likely that we can filter by users and, among the results obtained, we will identify similar profiles, our own, as well as other profiles that may have used our data, photos or other information for their creation (false profiles).
Hopefully, we won’t find anything or, at most, some post talking about us that we weren’t aware of. So it will also help us to see what other people, such as our friends and family, have posted about us.
How to act in case of finding information that we do not want to be published?
When we carry out this practice, it is likely that we will find information that we do not like or do not know was published. In the case of finding any type of information that we want to delete, such as images or data about us, we must act based on how it affects us:
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Configure the privacy options of our social networks: if you find unknown publications about us or false profiles on social networks, it is best to access the settings and configure the privacy options to prevent strangers from accessing our information.It is also advisable to manage how our contacts can tag us in different publications.
Finally, in case we find ourselves before a false profile, we must report it to the social network so that it can be eliminated as soon as possible. Most social networks include a section from which to report these fake accounts: Facebook , Instagram , Twitter …
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Exercise our right to be forgotten: when information is published by third parties, such as companies or other institutions, and it affects our digital identity and reputation, it is possible to remove it from search engines by exercising both rights.
In this link you will find the step by step to exercise your rights and eliminate the personal information published by third parties.
Finally, we remind you that it is advisable to carry out this practice periodically to ensure that your privacy remains intact and that only the information that you want to be published on the Internet is published.
And remember, from INCIBE we make our Cybersecurity Helpline, 017, available to all users to help you with any problem related to your security and privacy, and that of your devices.
Have you ever practiced egosurfing ? Have you found something that surprised you or that you think should be removed from the Network? Share your opinion and experiences with the rest of the users and keep up to date with the publications of the OSI of INCIBE in the field of cybersecurity in order to enjoy the advantages of technology.
